Becoming the Dark Lord

“Well, look at you, honey.” Artemis smiled from the couch. “My blessing’s already bearing fruit.”

She leaned back, looking entirely too pleased with herself.

“You’re welcome.”

[Spell Grimoire (Legendary)]: Driven by an insatiable hunger for arcane secrets, the Witch refuses to limit herself to the paths of her own magic. A devourer of knowledge, she dares to violate the natural order and steal power written into the very fabric of reality. This grimoire grants the Witch the ability to permanently absorb the spell contained within a scroll, destroying the scroll in the process. Through the Witch’s profound understanding of mana and the influence of her [Blessing of Artemis], the grimoire has evolved into a more powerful form. From now on, for every five levels gained in the Witch class, one page will gain the capacity to absorb a new Spell Scroll. The Witch may also inscribe a spell stored within one of its pages onto a physical scroll, allowing another individual to learn it, provided she possesses the talent required to reproduce its magical formulas. Certain restrictions may prevent some spells from being reproduced. No longer a simple, worn-out grimoire, it has become an artifact destined to evolve alongside the Witch.

“Holy shit, Artemis!”

The goddess only kept smiling as she lounged against the back of the couch. “Luke, your dear goddess is far too good to you.”

“Thank you. I mean... I don’t think ‘thank you’ even begins to cover this.” He stared at the grimoire, genuinely thrilled. “Seriously. I owe you.”

For once, Artemis’s smile lost some of its teasing edge.

“Whatever you want from the menu, it’s on me,” Luke added.

“I can only grant that blessing once, Luke. To one person. Ever.” Artemis tilted her head, looking pleased with herself again. “And I used it on you. Did you know that?”

Luke closed the grimoire. “I owe you big time, Artemis. I don’t know how yet, but someday I’ll repay you with something you actually need.”

She suddenly sprang up and threw both arms around his neck.

“My dear apostle, if you feel that guilty...” Artemis leaned close to his ear and lowered her voice. “You could start paying off that debt by making your goddess very happy.”

Luke took hold of her arms and gently pulled her away. “Yeah... I take that back. I’ll decide what counts as fair repayment.”

“Why not, my Luke? Your goddess is so tired.” She put on an exaggeratedly miserable expression. “How about starting with a back massage?”

A massage?

Luke considered it for a second.

Would that count as cheating? Would I be cheating on Charlie if I only gave Artemis a back massage?

Artemis turned her back to him.

“You can start by helping me out of my dress. I’ll go get some special oil,” she said with a wink.

“Nope. On second thought, the massage is canceled.”

“But why?!” She spun around and crossed her arms.

“Because any physical contact with you is a trap. You’re exactly the kind of person who’d say, ‘By the way, I can turn my back into an erogenous zone.’”

“Of course I can.”

“Of course you can...”

Luke decided he needed to come up with a different reward for his goddess. Preferably one that didn’t involve whatever bizarre kink she tried next.

“Anyway, my Luke,” Artemis said as she flopped back onto the couch, “for the next two days, it’ll be just the two of us, nice and cozy, until they finally let you out.”

As a precaution, Luke confiscated every copy of the room key Artemis had. She had a disturbing number of them.

That afternoon, Artemis fell asleep. Luke hadn’t even known gods needed sleep. Then again, if gods could eat, there was no reason they couldn’t sleep whenever they felt like it. The strange part was that she’d chosen his bed.

While Luke sat at the room’s table studying Mother Freya’s two books, Artemis slept soundly, hugging his pillow and breathing softly.

She almost looks fragile like this.

Maybe it was the whole goddess thing, but even sprawled across a hotel bed, Artemis looked like she belonged in a Renaissance painting. For the first time all day, the room was quiet.

Then a notification appeared before Luke’s eyes.

[The essence of the Dark Lord’s Relic has been forged!]

Finally.

[The sacrifice of one thousand human souls has formed the foundation of a Title Relic.]

Something black materialized above his palm. It had no fixed shape. It was a writhing mass of black flames, shadows, and condensed darkness that moved as though it were alive.

“Artemis.”

Luke shot to his feet and hurried to the bed. He sat beside the goddess, keeping one palm beneath the hovering essence as he nudged her awake with his other hand.

“Mmm...? What is it?” she mumbled, still half asleep.

[Warning: The Dark Lord’s Relic does not yet possess a Vessel.]

“You told me to wake you if something happened.”

Artemis kept her eyes closed. “Did something happen?”

“Yes. I got a warning about a Vessel.”

Her eyes snapped open. “This part is up to you, Luke. You have to forge the Relic’s physical form yourself.”

“Okay... and how exactly do I do that? I’m not a blacksmith.”

“Well, Luke, first you need to admit that you’re an idiot.”

“What?”

“If you’d made me your goddess sooner, I could’ve given you all kinds of valuable advice about your bloodline by now.”

“Fine. I’ll let you punish me by listing every single time I could’ve avoided ninety percent of my problems if I’d thought to become your follower sooner.”

“That’s right.”

Artemis sat up on the bed and studied the black mass hovering above his palm.

“Hmm...”

For several long minutes, she did nothing but stare. She seemed to see something Luke couldn’t. To him, it was still nothing more than a restless mass of darkness.

“Touch it with your other hand,” Artemis said.

“That’s it...?”

“Your goddess had to make sure it wouldn’t kill you first.”

The moment his fingers touched the black mass, something appeared beside the bed.

Luke looked up. “Holy shit, what the fuck is that?”

A creature nearly ten feet tall loomed over him. Its body was black and unnaturally thin, with long, disproportionate limbs. An enormous smile stretched across its face, but its narrow, razor-sharp eyes held no trace of joy. The smile only made it more unsettling.

It didn’t breathe.

It didn’t move.

It only watched him.

“Oh, you can see it too? Look at you, making progress,” Artemis remarked.

“What the fuck is it? It just appeared out of nowhere.”

“You can thank my Blessing for letting you see it.” Her expression sharpened. “That’s a Death Spirit.”

“A Death Spirit?”

“That’s right. I’ll explain the different kinds of spirits another time. There’s no point explaining your attunement to the natural world while you’re stuck in a hotel room. But this thing is manifesting so fully that even you can see it.”

“Death Spirits feed on death,” Artemis continued. “Your Relic was forged using the power of one.”

She kept watching the creature. “And not just any Death Spirit. That one is extremely dangerous. You sacrificed those souls and summoned it. Now you have to finish forging the Relic yourself.”

She paused. “But if you mess up... you die.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

Luke stared at the creature for another moment. “At this point, that qualifies as a normal day for me.”

He touched the black mass again.

[Warning: The Relic still does not possess a Vessel.]

More messages began to appear.

[Without a Vessel, the Relic cannot fully stabilize, manifest its functions, or bind itself to the Dark Lord.]

[Select a suitable object to serve as the Relic’s Vessel.]

Luke explained exactly what he was seeing to Artemis. As he kept his hand pressed against the black mass, he began to hear faint whispers, almost hidden beneath the silence of the room.

“So I just choose an object I’ve used before and make it the Vessel? Sounds simple enough.”

“In theory,” Artemis replied. “But remember, once you choose, you can never replace it. The Relic will become that object, and it will stay with you forever.”

Luke needed something he could keep with him at all times. Something that wouldn’t become useless, inconvenient, or impossible to use later.

“Can it be anything?”

“Not your kukris.”

“But it can be a weapon?”

“Yes. A sword, a shield, a crown, gloves, boots... even a pair of underwear.”

“That’s a pretty broad range.”

“Underwear aside, you need to choose carefully.”

Luke ignored the underwear example and used [Identify] on the dark mass.

[Dark Lord’s Relic]: A living relic of the Dark Lord, created through the sacrifice of one thousand human souls and awakened by the first Fruit of Sin unlocked along the [Tree of Knowledge] Title Path. This artifact will grow alongside its bearer, becoming part of their journey and accumulating their progress, awakened sins, and the powers granted by the Tree.

“Azazel created all of this? That’s... incredible.”

“Azazel could manipulate souls and Cores and extract life through plants. The guy was a genius at pretty much anything he put his mind to. He even created an entire system. So don’t ask me to explain how this works. Compared to him, you and I might as well be on the same level. He’s so far above us that the difference in our power barely matters.”

The whispers grew louder.

Artemis tilted her head slightly. “I can hear them too through our Blessing. Those are the whispers of the souls you killed, Luke.”

“All one thousand of them...?”

Paul, Kruger, and several others from the tutorial had to be among them. People he had killed, directly or indirectly, were now trapped inside that darkness, reduced to whispers.

“If there were a heaven or hell waiting for them, you’d be keeping those souls from reaching it,” Artemis said. “Relax. There’s no natural ‘other side.’ Gods have to create afterlives themselves. Once you’re dead, that’s it.”

“So there is an afterlife? Something like heaven?”

“No. That’s bullshit. There are dimensions created by gods to collect the souls of certain followers when they die.”

“So gods manufacture heaven?”

“Exactly.” She leaned back on her hands. “It’s basically, ‘Oops, you’re dying. I’ll take your soul, dump you in another dimension, call it paradise, and demand worship for eternity because my fake heaven has a quota to meet.’”

“I’m guessing admission isn’t easy.”

“It isn’t. Usually, you have to commit to a specific profession within a divine order. And in return, you cripple your progression forever and give up any chance of becoming a god.”

“That’s a terrible deal. I’d be better off becoming immortal by becoming a god myself. Then I wouldn’t need their paradise.”

“I told you. The afterlife is a scam. Congratulations. You made it out of Plato’s cave.”

“So it’s really just... when you die, you die?”

“Exactly. Dead is dead.” Artemis smiled. “See? That’s one of the perks of being my apostle. You just got one of the multiverse’s greatest secrets for free. Heaven is nothing but an XP farm for gods.”

“Holy shit...”

Artemis lay back down. This time, she laid her head in his lap.

“This is going to take a while, and I know you’ll be focused. So let your goddess sleep.”

“Uh...”

She closed her eyes. For once, it didn’t feel like she was teasing him. Artemis genuinely wanted to go back to sleep.

“Sometimes your goddess wants to be the one getting pampered.”

Does this count as cheating? It doesn’t, right? It doesn’t feel like it does. But what if it does? I really need to figure out where the hell the line is.

Luke looked down. Artemis was already asleep again, completely at ease. When he looked up, the Death Spirit was still there. But for the first time, its attention had shifted away from him. It was watching Artemis. And something in its razor-sharp eyes looked almost like unease.

Is she protecting me without saying anything?

Maybe the goddess really had fallen asleep in his lap to protect him from whatever that spirit might try during the process. Or maybe she just wanted him to pamper her. Or maybe it was both.

Luke turned his attention back to the Relic. He had finally made his choice. The whispers grew louder as he reached for the object.

[Warning: The selected object will not be enhanced. It will be sacrificed. Its original nature, enchantments, structure, and existence will be consumed and reforged into the Relic’s physical body.]

[Once initiated, the process cannot be reversed.]

Luke brought the object closer to the black mass. The darkness swallowed it whole, leaving nothing behind.

[Compatible Vessel detected.]

[The selected object can serve as the Vessel of the Dark Lord’s Relic.]

[Initiate Vessel Fusion?]

[Warning: Vessel Fusion requires continuous mana infusion, direct manipulation, and stabilization over an extended period. Failure may damage the Vessel, destabilize the Relic, or delay the binding process.]

Luke let out a slow breath.

A soul-forged Relic.

A Death Spirit beside him.

A goddess asleep in his lap.

No pressure, then.

[Proceed?]